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OUTTAKE #3 Sick With Fear

EXHIBIT A) The True Blue Politician In these post 9/11 days of fluctuating "terror alert levels," flexible definitions of inalienable human rights, and general global meltdown, the anticipatory panic that preceded the advent of the new century now seems quaint and amusing. In 1999, many people were terrified that the first stroke of the year 2000 would initiate a total breakdown of all computer-based technological systems that would result in total anarchy. Consequently, sales of gasoline-powered electrical generators soared, and antibiotics and canned goods were stockpiled. The fear was so common that it was given a nickname: "Y2K." Amidst all this pre-millennial anxiety, one man stood out: Stan Jones, a businessman from Montana who began taking colloidal silver (which was touted as an antibacterial agent and immune-system strengthener) in 1999 because he was afraid that Y2K disruptions would cause a shortage of antibiotics. In 2002, Mr. Jones ran as the Libertarian candidate against Montana Senator Max Baucus. Once illuminated by the bright lights of the media, it became obvious that Candidate Jones was a true blue citizen, perhaps one of the bluest that ever lived. Drinking all that silver had turned his skin blue. Permanently. Unfortunately for Mr. Jones, his skin was not an aesthetically pleasing sky-, robin's egg-, or Krishna-blue, it was rather a drowning-victim blue. Senator Baucus won the election handily. Apparently Montanans were not ready for a blue senator.